From All His Iniquities
by Mara Greengrass
Summary: Détente is good, but a resolution is better.


TITLE: From All His Iniquities

CATEGORY: Het/slash/humor

SUMMARY: Détente is good, but a resolution is better.

CONTINUITY: Set several months after my story "There Is Mercy", which takes place after the episodes "Heart of Ice" and "Heart of Fire". You don't necessarily have to have read "There Is Mercy," but it would help.

DISCLAIMER: The setting and characters belong to Tanya Huff, Lifetime TV, a production company or two, and pretty much anyone who isn't me.

NOTES: Please look at the rating. I know I usually write G to PG-rated stuff, but this is most assuredly not suitable for all audiences, and it's almost certainly Cereta's fault in some way. For the unexpurgated version of this story, please see my website.

* * *

The late afternoon sun slanted across Vicki's desk as Mike ducked his head in. "Hey there. Busy?"

"Just wrapping up." She hit a key on the keyboard with a self-satisfied thunk. "Ha. Take that."

"That'll show that computer." He came in and sat down, grinning, still glad to be back to an easy friendship with her.

"Hey, a paycheck is a paycheck, right?"

She didn't believe it any more than he did. "Sure, Vic."

"So, what brings you over here?"

"I also just wrapped up a case and I was wondering if you'd like to check out that new Thai place on Richmond."

Vicki hesitated. "Not tonight, Mike."

"You're going to be with Henry, aren't you?" He tried to make the question noncommittal, but he knew he sounded jealous.

She just gave him a look of disappointment.

"I'm sorry." He slumped back into the chair, feeling like an idiot.

Perching on the edge of her desk, Vicki gave him a surprisingly compassionate look. "Mike?"

He waved a hand. "Never mind. I'll catch you later." Standing, he tried to decide what to do with an unexpectedly open evening.

"Wait. Mike?"

When he looked at Vicki, she had an unusual look of indecision on her face. "Yeah?" he said.

"Well...you could come with me. To Henry's, I mean."

Mike distantly decided that it might be a good idea to get his heart checked, because if Vicki threw him any more curveballs, it might very well stop one day. "Ah."

"We could have dinner there. I was going to order in anyway." Vicki actually looked nervous and that meant the end of the world was approaching.

Mike decided to sit back down in the chair and consider this. "You're inviting me to Henry's. Won't he mind?"

"No." Vicki got an odd smile on her face.

Mike's heart did seem to stop for an instant. "Vicki? You're not proposing what I think you're proposing, are you?"

Her smile turned impish. "I don't know. Maybe."

Scrubbing his face, Mike wondered if Molly would like Vicki so much if she knew the messes she got him into. "Vicki..."

"Mike," she said quickly, "just come with me tonight. I'm getting tired of the way you two circle me like dogs fighting over a bone. I'd like to hash this out."

"Dogs?"

"Every time you're in the same room, I have to spend half my time worrying about whether you're going to get into a catfight and start scratching each other's eyes out."

"Catfight?" Mike blinked. "You're mixing your metaphors."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I do." He sighed. "Okay, I'll come with you." Although he was entirely certain he would regret it.

* * *

As Mike followed Vicki out of the elevator and toward Henry's apartment, he wondered if it would seem too obvious if called Kate and asked her to page him and pretend he had a homicide to investigate.

Yeah, probably.

The sun had just set when they knocked on the door. Which might have accounted for Henry's look of hunger when he opened the door and saw both of them standing there.

Mike swallowed against a throat that was suddenly dry. Not that he was afraid. Or...anything.

Vicki turned to look at him. "Mike?"

"Right." He followed her into the apartment.

Henry raised an eyebrow at Vicki, who shrugged, which made Henry grin. There seemed to be an entire conversation going on that Mike wasn't a part of, and he opened his mouth to say he'd changed his mind and he was heading home to do his laundry or something.

Vicki tossed her phone at him. "Call Pizza Pizza and get delivery. The local number's in there."

Mike followed the order automatically, as he had a thousand times before. Only as he was ordering a large pepperoni with half green peppers and half mushrooms did he realize he'd committed to staying for at least an hour or so.

When he hung up, Henry was lounging against a wall. "I'll be right back," he said, tugging on the belt of his dressing gown.

Only as Henry turned toward the bedroom did Mike realize the man wasn't dressed yet. He tore his eyes away from Henry's bare legs to see Vicki watching him. "This is insane," he said.

She shrugged as she sat on the couch, looking entirely comfortable and at home. "No more insane than anything else that's happened to us lately. Ghosts? Werewolves? Demons?" She paused significantly. "Vampires?"

Mike looked at her and thought about everything that life with her had brought him. He could leave right now and call Kate. He could ask her if she wanted to have a drink and they'd have a drink and dinner and maybe later sex. And his life wouldn't involve anything supernatural; he could live a perfectly normal life, maybe get married and buy a house in the 'burbs, do his job, and catch normal scum.

Vicki was watching him, looking as if she knew what he was thinking. Hell, Mike thought, she probably did.

This was it, he realized. Somehow this was a point of no return. If he ate pizza in the home of a vampire, he was giving up that normal life.

If he left...he was giving up Vicki. She wouldn't take him back if he couldn't stand to be near Henry.

He felt like the center of a tug-of-war.

The bedroom door opened and Henry came out, looking elegant even in a pair of jeans. "Mike?" he said in response to Mike's look. "Is something wrong?"

There it was, Mike thought, his last chance. And he found he couldn't move, couldn't decide.

Henry's expression turned to concern and in an instant he had crossed the room to stand in front of him, one hand starting to reach out for him before he apparently thought better of it.

Somehow that one movement, that very human instinct to comfort, made up his mind.

"I'm fine," Mike said. "Just distracted."

Henry obviously didn't believe it for an instant, but he chose to accept the lie. "Of course. So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

"Mike was free and I thought it'd be nice if he joined us."

Henry shot her an odd look. "Of course. He's always welcome here."

"Of course," Mike echoed.

Vicki sighed. "Look, I think we need to talk, okay?"

"Right, Vic," Mike said. "Because you've always been all about talking things out. You're Miss Talking About Emotions."

She glared at him. "Knock it off, buster."

Henry grinned at him. "She's always been like that?"

"Absolutely. There was this one time--"

"Great!" Vicki threw her hands in the air. "Just what I need: both of you ganging up on me."

Mike and Henry exchanged glances of complete accord. Annoying Vicki was fun.

The phone buzzed and Vicki glared at them. "Saved by the bell. Have them send the pizza up, Henry."

"Of course, milady." Henry swept a bow so low that his head nearly touched the ground.

She threw a sofa cushion at him and Mike couldn't help but laugh.

* * *

Eating while Henry watched wasn't as uncomfortable as Mike would have expected, and conversation was surprisingly relaxed. He and Henry engaged in a spirited debate about the artistic merit of comic books ("graphic novels") which segued into Vicki and Mike debating whether Superman could beat Batman, even in a fair fight.

"No such thing as a fair fight with Batman involved," Vicki declared, waving her last piece at Mike.

Henry, obviously trying not to laugh at them, moved the conversation to a discussion of the latest elections and there was general agreement over the relative merits of various politicians.

"I wouldn't have expected such liberal views from a cop," Henry said, looking interested.

"Well, I'm as much for law and order as the next guy," Mike said with a shrug, "but I spend too much time seeing what happens when kids don't get medical care and education."

Henry was still studying him, and Mike flushed and looked down at his empty plate.

"You interest me," Henry said.

Mike swallowed.

"Of course, you also infuriate me much of the time."

"That's mutual."

They stared at each other for a long moment, until Vicki waved a hand between them. "Earth to boys. Earth calling."

Henry turned to look at her and she subsided. "You've brought him here because you want to know if we can get along."

"Yes."

"And to see if we could work as a threesome."

Vicki turned bright red and Mike found his amusement overcame his own embarrassment. "Vic, if you can't say it, you're not old enough to do it."

She glared at him. "Fine. So hey, Mike, you wanna hop into bed with me and Henry? We both think you're hot."

That brought the embarrassment back and Mike found himself gaping at her, absolutely unsure what to say or do.

Henry sighed. "You're so delicate, Vicki."

"Hey, you're the one who said threesome, not me." She crossed her arms.

"But..." Closing his eyes, Henry muttered something that sounded like 'mortals.' "In any case, the point I was trying to make was that I find Mike attractive as well as you. When I made the suggestion that you didn't have to choose between us, I had in mind an equal relationship. If we do this, he has to want it as much as we do."

Mike stared at both of them. "This is insane."

"We've already had that conversation," Vicki reminded him.

"The question," Henry said, pinning him to the chair with that soulful gaze, "is whether you're attracted to me."

Mike opened his mouth, then closed it when he realized he had no idea what to say.

Vicki scowled at him. "Well?"

"Damn it, Vicki, I don't know."

"How can you not know if you're attracted to someone?" She looked genuinely confused.

Burying his face in his hands, Mike decided there was no doubt that his life was weird. Nobody had ever questioned his heterosexuality. Hell, he hadn't even questioned it, but an honest answer required him to admit that when Henry touched him, even a brush on the arm, he wasn't entirely unmoved.

"There are many wonderful things about 21st century America," Henry said with mild amusement, "but its sexual mores are not one of them."

"What do you mean?" Mike asked, looking up and trying not to feel like he was on trial.

Henry reached over and gently, very gently ran a finger across his lips and up and around his ear, caressing his earlobe.

Mike's breath caught in his throat and his body vibrated. He wanted to blame it on some vampire power, but...

"You're attracted to me," Henry said, a simple statement with no trace of his usual arrogance. "And yet you don't want to admit it because...what? It makes you less of a man?"

"That's not it."

"Then what, Mike?" Vicki took his hands across the table. "If you're not interested in Henry, that's fine, but if you are...give this a chance."

"Jesus Christ." Mike stood up, stomping to the window to look out at the city. "You make it sound so easy."

"It's not," Henry said. "It's never easy to accept a change in the way we see ourselves. I can certainly attest to that."

Mike looked over his shoulder. "Thanks. Way to make me sound petty."

"If the shoe fits...," Henry said with a smirk.

"Boys!" Vicki threw her hands in the air and came to stand beside Mike. She looked up at him. "Mike? I want this, but I don't want to lose you over it."

"You won't. You'll never get rid of me." He cupped her cheek and smiled.

From his seat at the table, Henry watched them, face gone unreadable again. Mike looked over at him. "I'm attracted to you," he said in a rush.

"If you can't say it, you're not old enough to do it," Vicki said, grinning.

"Fine. I want to have sex with both of you." Mike was sure his face was neon red, but he got the words out without choking.

Vicki reached up and pulled his head down into a kiss that was as bittersweet as it was familiar. "It's never going to be the way it was," she said. "It can't be."

"I know."

He kissed her again, forgetting for a moment where they were. Until a hand that definitely didn't belong to Vicki rested on his shoulder, making him jump.

"Relax," Henry said into his ear. "That tends to help."

"I just..." Mike's jaw clenched and Vicki stroked it.

"I know," she said. "It's okay."

"It might help if you didn't think of me as a man," Henry said.

"I should think of you as a vampire instead?" Mike said as Vicki kissed her way up his throat.

Chuckling, Henry leaned over his shoulder to kiss Vicki. "That wasn't exactly what I meant."

"I know." Mike swallowed, torn between his growing arousal at being touched and the serious weird factor of being touched by Vicki and Henry. This was just bizarre. This sort of thing didn't happen to nice city boys who grew up to be cops.

Vicki pulled his shirt untucked from his pants. "I get the feeling we don't have your complete attention."

Swallowing sharply, Mike shook his head as Henry ran both hands slowly down his chest. "Oh, I think you do."

Fingers started to work on his buttons and a low voice said in his ear, "Stop thinking and feel."

That, Mike's body decided unilaterally, was excellent advice, and his eyes drifted shut. Teeth tugged at his ear and someone pulled off his shirt. Mike gasped when his undershirt was tugged off and lips fastened on a nipple.

"Bed," Vicki said in that tone that had always made him drop whatever he was doing and follow her, the tone that promised laughter and great sex.

Mike opened his eyes long enough to let Vicki drag him into the bedroom and onto that gigantic bed he'd tried not to think about. He knelt over her and she deliberately squirmed under him, making him gasp again.

Henry knelt by Vicki's side and helped her pull her shirt over her head while Mike worked on her pants. Mike ran his tongue along the crease between her leg and torso, making her gasp, then down her leg and around behind her knee to the spot that always made her jump.

Her laugh was breathless and when Mike looked up, he saw Henry licking a nipple. Henry caught his eyes and let go of Vicki to cup Mike's jaw and tug him up toward her head. "Kiss her," Henry said.

That was a plan Mike could get into and he happily bent over to kiss her, enjoying the taste that was uniquely her and the feel of her hands in his hair. God, he'd missed this.

A hand skated over the top of his head, across his shoulders, and down his back. Mike jumped as it dipped into the waistband of his pants and he realized it wasn't Vicki. "Jesus!" He jumped backward, nearly falling off the edge of the bed.

"Mike?" Vicki said, sitting up.

Henry sat back on his heels, still fully dressed and not looking especially surprised.

"I'm sorry." Mike ran a hand through his hair. "I didn't mean to do that. I'm not sure I'm really ready for this."

Vicki sighed. "That's okay, Mike. I understand." The look on her face nearly broke Mike's heart again.

"I can help you relax," Henry said.

"Henry?" Vicki said, looking at him in confusion.

Mike resisted the instinct that said to run, but he could feel his heart race. "I don't want...if I do this, it has to be because I want to. You said that yourself."

"And I still believe that." Henry knelt between the two of them, a hand on each. "But I find you very attractive and if you're completely repulsed by that..." Pausing, Henry stroked his thumb on Mike's knee. "I can help you to lose those inhibitions. You would never lose control of your thoughts or actions, just that part of you that says there's something wrong with your desires."

Vicki frowned. "You can do that?"

Henry shrugged. "You pick up a few tricks in 500 years."

"I'm sure you do." She smirked at him.

"That too."

Mike watched Vicki and Henry for that moment like a stranger, saw the bond between them, the bond he'd resisted seeing all along. He should just leave them. He was the interloper here.

And just then, both Vicki and Henry turned to look at him, expressions oddly similar in their hunger and desire. Mike could feel his entire body tingle in reaction, and a pulse in his groin.

"Mike?" Vicki crawled around Henry to sit next to him. "You don't have to do this. But I want you here. You're..." She waved to show her inability to find the words.

"Mike is your right hand," Henry said.

Vicki considered this seriously. "Something like that. And you're my left, Henry. I won't chop off one hand if I can keep them both."

Henry tilted his head. "Somehow you made my metaphor sound much less appealing."

"Hey, you're the writer, not me." She shrugged. "Don't go, Mike. Give this a chance. Please."

He'd never been able to resist her. Even when they fought, he'd always been looking for a way to give in. Mike closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. He opened his eyes. "Do it," he said.

Henry looked startled. "You trust me to do this?"

"You offered. Can you do it?" Mike did his best to look confident, pretty sure he was failing miserably.

"This is a day for surprises." Henry moved Vicki aside and came to sit in front of Mike. "But there is a chance you may hate me tomorrow for doing this."

"You'll have to trust me."

Henry considered it. "Then look into my eyes."

Mike swallowed sharply, fists clenched as he looked into Henry's eyes, watching them slowly darken to vampire black. Henry was saying something, but the words were lost in the black, echoing, fading into an endless ocean of warmth.

Mike could feel his heart slow and his hands relax, and gradually the black receded, leaving Henry's voice. "Mike?" The name sounded odd out of Henry's mouth, Mike thought somewhat hazily as he focused on the mouth, wondering what the fangs felt like.

"Mike?" Vicki said, leaning forward. "How do you feel?"

Mike poked at his emotions like a loose tooth. "That's weird. I feel...I don't know how to describe it, actually."

Henry shot Vicki a glance, then leaned over and cradled Mike's face in his hands, pulling him in for a kiss. Mike closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of Henry's hands, wondering what he'd been so worried about. Okay, kissing a guy was different, but...damn, 500 years sure taught you something about kissing.

He found himself making a highly embarrassing squeak when Henry pulled out of the kiss, and his heart rate was up again, but not out of fear this time.

"That answers that," Vicki said, looking a little flushed herself. "Mike? Are you okay with this?"

Mike got his breathing under control again. "Yeah. I'm still me. I guess. Whoever that is."

Vicki crawled into his lap and pulled him in for a kiss of her own. "My right hand, dummy."

The rest of their clothing came off in a blur of arms and elbows and helping hands that weren't very helpful. Mike had secretly wondered if the so-serious Henry Fitzroy knew how to laugh in bed, and now he had the answer, as the man's mischievous grin met his over Vicki's head. "First one to make her moan wins," Henry said.

"You're on."

"What?" Vicki yelped as four hands and two mouths pounced at once. "Oh my god."

* * *

When Vicki sighed in a way he remembered with great pleasure, he lay down next to her, enjoying the feel of her smooth skin against his body, feeling pleasantly aroused. Henry leaned on one arm on her other side, smiling down at both of them.

It was like a lightning bolt, as Mike looked at that expression, one he'd never seen before. He'd seen Henry mocking and angry and serious and being a smartass, but he hadn't seen this look, one that didn't scream dangerous vampire, but caring lover. Maybe this was what Vicki had seen all along.

"What's wrong?" Vicki asked, turning her flushed face to look at him with concern. She wasn't especially sensitive to moods, but this was apparently fairly obvious.

"Nothing." Mike shook his head.

"You're still thinking too much." Henry gave him an unreadable look and then in an instant he was kneeling on Mike's other side.

Mike automatically rolled to keep him in sight and suddenly found two avid expressions poised over him. "Oh shit," he said.

Henry knelt over him, hands on his shoulders as he kissed him, tongue and sharp teeth invading his mouth, tasting his lips, then moving all over. Things got hazy as Vicki decided to move further down.

Mike couldn't help it, he arched his back, gasping as teeth and tongues and hands seemed to touch him everywhere. He groped blindly, rubbing whatever skin he could find, not caring whose it was.

"Jesus," he groaned. He felt Henry straddle him and instinctively, Mike reached out for him, drawing him close, catching his breath as Henry rubbed against him, long and leisurely like a cat, all muscle and bone and god, that felt good.

Henry made a sound and vaguely Mike wondered what Vicki was doing to him, but not enough to open his eyes or stop thrusting against the warm body that held him down. He was so close, so close, so close...

"Bite me," Mike gasped out. Then he whined as Henry pulled back. "God, don't stop."

"You mean it."

"Yes, I mean it." Mike pushed his hips up.

Vicki brushed sweaty hair out of Mike's face, studying him. "Henry, are you sure you didn't--"

"I didn't."

"Damn it," Mike ground out, "don't go analytical on me. When you fed on me, I..." He groaned. "I got hard, okay? Do it."

That got the desired result, as Henry once again pressed him down into the bed and Vicki's hands resumed their exploration of all his most sensitive points.

Mike's head lolled back and he felt Henry's mouth graze his jaw and skate down his neck. For a moment he was afraid, there was an instant of pain and then warmth. His body arched up as he came and Mike was willing to swear he saw stars.

This time, when Henry drew back, there was no pain, and just a streak of blood on his lips. Henry wiped it off, looking thoroughly sated as he slid off Mike to lie on the bed next to him.

Mike supposed this was when he was supposed to freak out, but honestly, he felt too good for that, even if his stomach was sticky and damp.

Vicki was somber as she curled up against his shoulder.

"What?" Mike mumbled as he drew her close, burying his face in her hair.

She just shook her head as she reached across him to take Henry's hand. They lay like that for a while, until Henry sat up long enough to pull a sheet over all of them. When he lay back down, his head rested on Mike's other shoulder.

It was weird. But kind of nice, Mike decided as he lay there in a comfortable haze.

* * *

Some unmeasurable time later, Henry slipped out of his arms. When Mike and Vicki looked up, he smiled. "I'm afraid I have work to do. No need for you to move."

"Good," Vicki said into Mike's shoulder, "because I'm not going anywhere."

Henry's face grew serious. "I'm glad to hear that."

Mike thought he should probably be thinking very seriously, but instead he drifted off to sleep.

When Mike awoke again, Henry was back in bed and Vicki was sitting at the foot of the bed, naked, watching both of them intently. Mike glanced at the windows, but the shades were down, so he couldn't tell the time.

"It's not dawn yet," Vicki said softly.

Mike looked to his side as Henry shifted and sat up, the sheet pooled at his waist. They both looked at Mike.

Squirming under their gaze, Mike said, "What?"

Henry shook his head. "That's what I was wondering. Vicki?"

She crawled back up the bed. "I was just..." She shrugged. "I didn't want to forget this sight, in case I didn't get to see it again."

Henry looked back at Mike. "Well? Now that I've released your mind, do you regret your actions?"

Mike took a deep breath, letting his mind rove over what had happened earlier in the evening. "No," he said eventually. "I don't regret it."

Vicki let out a breath and Henry looked relieved, which was a sight Mike never expected to see.

"Soooo," he said, and they both tensed up. "Exactly how much time do we have before dawn? Because I have a few ideas about how we could use that time. If you're agreeable."

Henry and Vicki exchanged grins and pounced. Mike laughed as they landed on either side of him. "I'll take that as a yes," he said.

--end--


End file.
